Our first guest blog comes from Dr. Andrea Knorr of High School North.
School is in full swing, which means it’s time for the kids
to learn! What many non-teachers don’t realize is how much we also
learn as we grow as educators. As a former engineer turned educator, I
often find myself trying to learn things that would have been covered (I think)
in a more traditional path to becoming a teacher. Today I found myself
with nothing to grade (can you believe it?), so I decided to search online for
more information about formative assessment. I know what it is and how it
differs from summative assessment, but I really couldn’t think of more than two
or three ways of doing it. Little did I know that one of my peers felt the
same! We all know about exit tickets, but there must be another
way! I found this link to be very helpful, so I thought I would pay it
forward and share with you as well. Yes, some of the 54 (yes, 54!)
methods of formative assessment are a little mundane, but it is comprehensive
and also breaks down the methods into different categories such as technology,
self-reporting, student work, etc.
If you have used, or end up using any of these methods, I’d
like to hear your input on how well they did or did not work. Maybe you
could be the next guest blogger!
~Andrea
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This guest blog is from Kevin Scully of High School South.
One of our objectives is for students to read media reports of science or technology in a critical manner. In order to approach this objective I wanted to have the students create a rubric for evaluating science publications. I was going to use a rubric for friendship as an introduction, which has been successful for many teachers (http://enos.rutgers.edu/rubrics.htm), but thought that I could better leverage the activity by working on a rubric for lab group members.
After a chaotic session in one class using a shared Google spreadsheet where they came up with their own characteristics I realized that they needed some scaffolding to direct their efforts. I was thinking about this while standing in the classroom looking at the wall and saw that there were, conveniently, six 21st century competences on placards taped there. In the next class I used those placards at the lab tables as a method for the students to organize their thoughts. This was surprisingly, to me, successful as a strategy and made what I thought of as an introductory activity very worthwhile in and of itself. The students said they found this use of the competences to be authentic rather than what they reported as usually feeling disingenuous.
Here are a couple of excerpts from their blog entries about the class:
“Though the activity had some comic relief, we came to something of an idea to what good lab partners do. This year I want to be one of those ideal lab partners, so it was good to understand what I was shooting for.”
“ In our groups, we discussed how each competency should be demonstrate while completing a lab. I found the Globally Aware competency particularly intriguing because it explained that a helpful team member must follow academic integrity codes and resolves conflicts among one another.”
And a section of the rubric they generated.
Characteristics 21st century
|
irresponsible useless
|
moderate worker plebe
|
awesome
|
Collaborative Team Member
|
Does not contribute to the group; argues too much; just copies answers. Hogs all the work. Prevents all other group members form working.
|
Works just enough to be considered a contributing member.
|
Constantly engages in lab disscusions. Helps with procedures, but does not hog all the work. Willing to compromise on debated procedures and topics
|
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This Guest Blog comes from Dr. Teresa Maone of GMS
Intro to NGSS Practices: Developing
and Using Models
Many of us use models and modeling
in our classrooms, but do we use them in a way that truly promotes the
understanding of scientific ideas? For
example, creating a plant or animal cell using pasta to represent the different
organelles helps students to understand very little about how a cell
functions. Creating an analogy map
comparing the parts of a cell to the parts of a house or factory can help
students to understand the different roles of the organelles in a complex, dynamic
system. The former is a craft project;
the latter is a science practice.
Scientists and engineers use models
to understand, explain, and predict natural and designed phenomena. The Next Generation Science Standards
includes developing and using models as an important science practice for
students. This practice is articulated
through the grade levels, approaching the way scientists and engineers use
models and modeling. At each grade
level, students should develop, analyze, test, and revise models based on
evidence. In elementary grades, students represent
events and describe observable causal relationships. By middle school, students progress to more
abstract, unobservable phenomena. In
high school, students analyze more complex relationships between variables in a
system. Models and modeling can take
many forms: physical models, drawings, diagrams, mathematical equations and
graphs, computer simulations, and analogy maps are a few examples.
More information about NGSS
Practices: Developing and Using Models
Teresa Maone is an 8th grade science teacher at
Thomas Grover Middle School in WW-P. She has been active in K-12
professional development for many years as a lead teacher, workshop developer,
and content expert. She holds a PhD in neuroscience from New York
University.
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